Cross-Sex Hormones Are Bad, Mmmkay?

They Really Are, According To A Study From The Department Of Shit We Already Knew

Transgender women on hormone therapy may be at a higher risk for cardiovascular problems, such as stroke, blood clots and heart attack.

The study, reported last Monday, was done by reviewing eight years of medical records of nearly 5,000 transgender patients in the Kaiser Health system, and looked at patients over the age of 18 who took hormones for gender transition. Over 97,000 non-transgender patients — people whose sex at birth matches their gender identity — with similar age and health characteristics were studied for comparison.

The study found that transgender women, who are assigned the male sex at birth, were twice as likely as men or women to have the blood clot condition venous thromboembolism. Transgender women on hormone therapy were also found to be 80 to 90 percent more likely to have stroke or a heart attack than women who naturally can produce the hormones they so desperately want to level up on.

The review of the records has limitations and isn’t enough to establish a direct cause and effect, Getahun cautioned. He noted that the study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, only had access to the patients’ records at Kaiser, so any outside medications couldn’t be accounted for. In addition, the dosage and type of hormones administered were unknown.

We’ve known for some time that taking cross-sex hormones when you are definitely not the sex you’re taking them for is not without risk.

One of the nasty little side effects from taking estrogen as a trans-identified male is bone loss, according to The Journal Of The Endocrine Society.

In other words, if you like having things like a fully-intact skeleton that isn’t going to shatter when you sneeze, you might want to reconsider.